Lock means for door operating mechanism

ABSTRACT

FOR A RAILROAD CAR-MOUNTED CRANK MECHANISM FOR OPERATING THE DISCHARGE DOORS OF A HOPPER RAILROAD CAR BETWEEN OPEN AND CLOSED POSITIONS, AND AUXILIARY LOCK DEVICE FOR LIMITING MOVEMENT OF THE CRANK MECHANISM FROM THE CLOSED DOOR POSITION, THE LOCK DEVICE BEING PIVOTALLY MOUNTED AT ONE END THEREOF TO ONE END OF A CAR-MOUNTED FIXED SUPPORT, A MULTIPLIER UNIT PIVOTALLY MOUNTED INTERMEDIATE ITS ENDS TO THE OTHER END OF THE SUPPORT AND ONE END OF THE UNIT BEING A FREE END CARRYING ROLLER MEANS BELOW THE POINT OF PIVOTAL MOUNTING OF THE UNIT, THE UPPER PART OF ONE END OF THE UNIT BEING A FREE END AND SLIDINGLY SUPPORTING THE LOCK DEVICE, THE OTHER END BEING A FREE END HAVING ABUTMENT WITH A CAR-MOUNTED STOP LIMIT PIVOTING OF THE MULTIPLIER UNIT, THE UNDERSIDE SIDE PORTION OF THE MULTIPLIER UNIT CARRYING ROLLER MEANS BETWEEN AND BELOW THE MULTIPLIER UNIT PIOT AND THE ONE END OF THE MULTIPLIER UNIT, SAID ROLLER MEANS BEING ADAPTED FOR ENGAGEMENT WITH THE RAIL MEANS FOR RAISING THE LOCK DEVICE OUT OF THE PATH OF MOVEMENT OF THE CRANK MECHANISM ATTENDANT TO ROTATING THE CRANK MECHANISM TO THE OPEN DOOR POSITION.

Sept. 20, 1971 R. w. MILLER 3,606,043

LOCK MEANS FOR noon ommme uEcrumIsu Filed July 2, 1969 3 SheetsJheet 1 ROY W MILLER INVENTOR Sept. 20, 1971 R. w. MILLER LOCK umus FOR noon ormzmua umcumsu I 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed July 2, 1969 mvsuron ROY W MILLER BY -E W ATT'Y.

Sept. 20, 1971 R. w. MILLER 3,606,043

LOCK MEANS FOR DOOR OPERATING IECHANISM Filed July 2; 1969 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 52 "H46 mvsuron ROY w MILLER United States Patent ffice 3,606,043 Patented Sept. 20, 1971 U.S. Cl. 214-63 17 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE For a railroad car-mounted crank mechanism for operating the discharge doors of a hopper railroad car between open and closed positions, an auxiliary lock device for limiting movement of the crank mechanism from the closed door position, the lock device being pivotally mounted at one end thereof to one end of a car-mounted fixed support, a multiplier unit pivotally mounted intermediate its ends to the other end of the support and one end of the unit being a free end carrying roller means below the point of pivotal mounting of the unit, the upper part of one end of the unit being a free end and slidingly supporting the lock device, the other end being a free end having abutment with a car-mounted stop to limit pivoting of the multiplier unit, the underside side portion of the multiplier unit carrying roller means between and below the multiplier unit pivot and the one end of the multiplier unit, said roller means being adapted for engagement with the rail means for raising the lock device out of the path of movement of the crank mechanism attendant to rotating the crank mechanism to the open door position.

This invention relates to means for opening and closing the underside doors of a hopper vehicle and, more particularly, relates to means provided on the railroad hopper car and means adjacent the railroad track for allowing operation of the hopper doors between opened and closed positions and wherein the means mounted on the railroad car prevent accidental opening of the doors and whereby means by the track cooperate with the means on the railroad car to permit said doors to be opened.

It is well known in the prior art to provide for trackside tripping devices which actuate hopper door operating mechanism to open the lower hopper doors of the hopper compartment of a railroad hopper car as the car passes by the tripping device. Such type of hopper carmounted door operating mechanism is shown by the allowed co-pending U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 598,440, filed Dec. 1, 1966, of William R. Shaver, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,459,317 issued Aug. 5, 1969, which is incorporated herein by reference. In the said Shaver application, an on-car crank mechanism is operated to open the vehicle doors by engaging a rail trackside cam rail. In the hopper door closed position the crank mechanism is in the over-center position so that the crank mechanism in engaging the cam track is swung past the over-center position and the weight of the doors allowed to fall by gravity. To prevent the crank mechanism from accidentally swinging past over-center from the door closed to the door open position, such as when the car is traveling down the track in open country where there is no cam track, and thereby accidentally dumping the contents of the hopper on the railroad bed, an auxiliary lock device is provided for, as shown by the co-pending U.S. patent application, Ser. No. 618,152 filed Feb. 23, 1967, of Herman A. Aquino, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,076 issued June 2, 1970, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The Aquino applications auxiliary lock device comprises an auxiliary lock device which prevents crank drive mechanism from swinging over-center to allow the doors to fall by gravity. This auxiliary lock device or bar may be raised out of the path of movement of the crank mechanism at a dumping site by the use of a ground-mounted auxiliary lock bar lifting cam track so that the door operating mechanism may be operated at the dumping site. However, it is desired to prevent the auxiliary locking device from being too close to the ground or from accidentally falling down during car travel when the car is not near the dumping site for both car loaded and car unloaded conditions. In order to do this, some lifting means is desired to be provided for preventing the lifting means and the auxiliary lock device from being too close to the ground, and therefore being hit by objects, whether the hopper is loaded with lading or is empty. It is this problem and other problems which the invention seeks to overcome.

It is, therefore, a general object of this invention to provide for a lock arrangement obstructing the operation of the door operating mechanism and preventing the doors from moving to the door open position and for means mounted on the ground adjacent the railroad track for engaging the means obstructing the movement of the doors and causing said last-mentioned means to be removed to permit the doors to move to the opened position.

Another object of this invention is to provide for a ground-mounted tripping rail and for a car-mounted auxiliary lock arrangement which normally prevents movement of the door operating mechanism from the closed to the opened position but which, upon engaging the ground-mounted rail means, carries the lock arrangement out of the path of movement of the door operating mechanism, the auxiliary lock arrangement being provided with a multiplier unit adapted for engagement with the rail means and the auxiliary lock arrangement for raising the lock arrangement out of the path of the door operating mechanism a suflicient distance to provide for clearance operation of the door operating mechanism.

Still another object of this invention is to provide for an auxiliary lock bar multiplier adapted for engagement with the aforesaid rail and swinging the auxiliary lock device out a sufficient angular distance above the driving crank arm of the door operating mechanism and yet to permit the auxiliary lock device and the multiplier to be in an out-of-way position for normal travel of the car over the rails when the hopper doors are closed.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide for, in operation of the doors of a railroad dump car actuated by a door operating mechanism, an auxiliary lock arrangement as originally disclosed in the said Shaver patent application and which has been incorporated here by reference, wherein a multiplier unit provides a mechanical advantage in the operation of the auxiliary lock arrangement and whereby the auxiliary lock arrangement is lifted to a higher position, thereby providing clearance for operation of the door operating crank mechanism to move from the closed to the open position and yet to permit the lock arrangement to prevent movement of the crank mechanism from the closed door position and yet afford sufiicient ground clearance for the auxiliary lock arrangement and the multiplier unit.

The invention further provides for multiplier means which is held against a stop in an elevated condition so that it cannot be hit by objects underneath the railroad car.

These and other objects will become more readily apparent from reference to the following description, attached drawings and appended claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a general perspective view of a railroad hopper car;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the railroad hopper car;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along lines 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a partial side sectional view taken along line 44 of FIG. 6 generally at the center of the car at the auxiliary lock device when the car is traveling from the door closing cam to the door opening cam;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged partial sectional view of the auxiliary lock bar and the pivotal multiplier lever arrangement as taken along line 55 of FIG. 2 with portions omitted; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the auxiliary lock device and the lifting rail track therefor where the car is moving from the door operating closing cam to the door operating opening cam.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With reference now to the drawings and, in particular, with reference to FIGS. 1 through 4, there is shown a railroad hopper car 1 having a railroad car hopper body 2 and underframe 3 supported on trucks 4 on rails 5. The car body 2 is further provided with sides 6, ends 7, and an open top 8 with a hopper section 9. The hopper section is defined by end slope sheets 10 at each end, and floor slope sheets 11 separated by a center hood l2 and flanked by side discharge hopper doors 13. The doors 13 are pivotally connected to the side sills 14. The car underframe 3 includes, in addition to the side sills, the center sill 15 of I-beam construction supporting the center hood and floor slope sheets. Depending from the center sill is the car supporting structure 16 to which is dependingly mounted the hopper door operating mechanism 17 for opening and closing the doors, as described in the aforementioned Shaver and Aquino patent applications. The car supporting structure consists generally of a pair of transverse beam structures 18, as seen in 'FIG. 2, one of which is shown in the perspective view of FIG. 6. Each beam structure 18 comprises a transverse I-beam 19 carrying beam means 20, which carries a cradle beam structure 21 which carries crank support 22 which carries the crank means 23 of the door operating structure. As viewed in FIG. 2, two such crank means 23 are shown, the one on the right carrying the drive lever 24 which drives its crank means 23 and through transfer links 23a drives a left-hand crank means 23 which with the other crank means 23, moves all the door operating arms 26 to open and close the doors 13. As disclosed in the copending applications to Shaver and Aquino, the crank mechanism has an over-center position to maintain the doors in the locked or closed position and only by the crank mechanism 23 and the door operating links 26 passing the over-center position are the doors allowed to fall by gravity to the door open or dump position. The drive lever 24 is provided with a pair of track following rollers which engage ground-mounted camming rails or tracks 29 and 30, as shown in the aforementioned co-pending patent application of Shaver, whereby one set 29 of such cam tracks can open the doors and another set 30 of cam tracks can close the doors. The drive lever 24 rotates about its central axis 24a due to the rotational or pivotal connection of the crank means 23, as disclosed in the said Shaver patent application, upon engagement of one of the opening or closing camming tracks 29 or 30. For this purpose, as viewed in FIG. 6, the right end 27 of the crank drive lever 24 rotates counter-clockwise toward an auxiliary lock device 28 when the crank mechanism goes from the door closed to the door open position, the rotation being reversed when the right end 27 of the crank mechanism goes from the door open position to the door closed position.

As further shown in the perspective view of FIG. 6, there is provided a ground-mounted camming or drive lever tripping rail structure 31 which includes a pair of parallel auxiliary bar tri ing rail mem e 32 and 33.

These rail members are held upright by cross beam members 34. The rail member 33 operates to remove the auxiliary lock device 28 from the path of rotation of the drive lever 24 when the railroad car moves from the upwardly sloping camming surface 35 to the elevated horizontal camming surface 36 whether the cars goes forwardly or reversely through the area of the drive lever tripping rail structure 31. The auxiliary bar tripping rail member 32 is similarly constructed to the member 33. However, should the orientation of a particular railroad hopper car be from a car that cooperates with the rail 33, then the auxiliary look device would be swung in an out-of-way position by the rail member 32.

As also shown in FIG. 6, as a car moves from the left to the right, the drive lever 24 has its left-hand roller engage the front facing camming surfaces 29c and 29d of the opening cam structure 29 to force the left-hand roller 25 counter-clockwise, rotating the drive lever 24 180 and placing the doors of the car in the open position and the right-hand roller 25, which is now rotated 180 engages the back side 30a of its closing cam gate 37 of cam track 30 which is moved outwardly by the right cam member or roller 25 about its pivotal connection 30e with the cam section 38 of the closing camming track 30 to thereby permit the other roller 25 to pass beyond the closing cam track 30 without further rotating the drive lever 24. In order to close the doors of the hopper car, the car has its direction of travel reversed engaging the front faces 30c and 30d of the closing cam track 30 to reverse the rotation of the crank drive lever 180 in the reverse direction or clockwise to thereby close the vehicle doors whereupon the right-hand drive lever roller 25 is back in the position shown in FIG. 6 and the left-hand roller 25 of the drive lever engages the back side 29a of gate 37 of the camming track 29 to pivot the cam gate 37 of camming rail 29' outwardly about its pivotal connection 292 with the fixed cam section 38 to allow passage of the left-hand roller 25 and the drive lever 24 thereby through the opening camming track without pivoting of the drive lever 24 about its central axis 24a in order to leave the doors in the closed position. The particular construction of the cams 2 9 and 30 is not of particular moment here other than to realize that each cam 29 or 30 is ground-mounted between the rail members 32 and 33 and is provided with its pivotal cam section 3 7 and its fixed cam section 38 to which the pivotal cam section 37 is pivotally mounted for swinging movement away from the rail member 32 when its respective back side 29a or 30a is engaged by the respective roller 25 to allow the drive lever to pass therethrough without rotating the drive lever. Engagement of the roller 25 with the front face 290 or 30c causes the free end of each cam gate section or pivotal section 37 to stop up against the side of the rail member 32 and thus the gate section 37 cannot move when the cam roller 25 bears against the respective front face 29c or 300.

The auxiliary lock device 28 comprises a pivotal elongated lock bar 39 pivotally mounted at its connected end 40 by pivot pin 41 to the lock bar support structure 42 which is fixedly attached to the car supporting structure 16. The support structure 42 comprises a lock bar support gusset 43 which is bolted by bolt means 44 to the depending lock bar carrier arms or plates 45 between which is pivotally connected thereto the lock bar 39'. The look bar 39 has a tapered or chamfered edge or surface 46 at its lower free end 47. The chamfered or tapered lock bar edge 46 permits the lock bar 39 to be raised about its pivot pin 41 when the drive lever 24 is rotated from its open. door position 180 back to its closed door position. To aid the passing of the drive lever past the lock bar 39, the lever 24 also has a corner chamfered edge 48, as seen in FIG. 6, which cooperates with the lock bar in order for the lever to clear the bar 39. It will be appreciated, as disclosed in the co-pending patent application to Aquino, that when the lock bar 39 is in the horizontal position,

as seen in solid line in FIG. 4, with the drive lever in the closed position, as seen in FIG. 4 or FIG. 6, the crank mechanism cannot move to the door open position.

Each arm or plate 45 that carries the lock bar 39 has a corner end 49 which receives the pivot pin 41. Each arm 45 also has another projecting or toe end 50 carrying pivot pin 51 which pivotally carries the multiplier or mechanical advantage lever means 52, as seen in FIGS. 4, and 6. The multiplier means 52 comprises a pair of transversely spaced apart longitudinally extending elongated plate members 53 attached to the respective outer side of each of the carrier plates 45 by the pivot pin 51. Each plate member 53 comprises a generally triangularly shaped lever part having a free end 54 longitudinally opposite its lock bar support pin end .55 through which extends the look bar support pin means 56. Each plate 53 of the multiplier unit 52 is provided at its end 54 with a projection or abutment 57 which engages the stop 58 fixedly mounted on the outside of each outer support arm 45, as seen in FIG. 4. At the apex '59 of each of the generally triangularly shaped multiplier plate members 53 is provided auxiliary lock bar raising roller means 60 for engaging the top side or intermediate camming surfaces 35 and 36, for raising the multiplier means 52 and the lock bar 39 thereby, since the roller means 60 carried by each of the plates 53 rolls along either surface 35 or 36. The geometry of the multiplier unit 52 is such that it is pivotally carried by pivot means 51 intermediate its end with the abutment 57 being at one extreme end and the lock bar engaging pin 55 being at the other end and the roller means 60 being below and between the end 54 and the end 55, the pivot pin means 51 being between the roller means 60 and the end 54 and outwardly of the lock bar pivot means 41, as seen in FIG. 4. The center of gravity of the multiplier means 52 is to the right of the pivot means 51 (FIG. 4) so that when the multiplier means 52 is not engaging the auxiliary lock bar tripping rail member 32 or 33, the abutment 57 swings up and rests against the stop 58. Engagement of the roller means 60 with the rail member 32 or 33 causes the lock bar support pin 56 to raise the lock bar 39 from a solid line position to the dotted line position shown in FIG. 4 to clear movement of the drive lever 24 so that it is free to operate the crank mechanism 23 between door closed and opened positions. As the roller means 60 rides up the cam track or rail member 32 or 33 and onto the top horizontal surface thereof, the lock bar raising pin of the multiplier unit 52 slides along the underside surface of the lock bar 39 to elevate the same. As viewed in FIGS. 4 and 5, each side plate 45 is provided with a hole or aperture 45a for receiving a pin 45b (shown removed) whereby the pin may be inserted through each plate 45 to engage the underside of the lock bar 39 and to manually hold the look bar 39 in the raised or elevated position when manual operation of doors is desirable.

Thus, it is seen that there is provided a novel multiplier or mechanical advantage lever means 52 for raising the lock bar sufficiently high enough out of the way because of the geometrical relation between the pivot means 41 and 51 and the triangmlar configuration of the multiplier means and the location of the look bar raising pin 55. The multiplier unit raises the free end of the locking bar a greater distance to clear the crank means 23 when the hopper car is in the loaded condition (lading in the hopper) than when the hopper car is in the unloaded condition, due to the spring deflection at the spring-supported car trucks and thereby raising the locking bar sufficiently above the drive lever in the unloaded as well as the loaded condition and yet to require a minimum amount of projection of the multiplier or bar raising means below the car structure in order to provide suificient clearance between the multiplier unit and the ground.

As various changes could be made in the above construction without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is: 1. For a hopper vehicle having hopper doors: door operating mechanism opening and closing the doors including means having a drive lever, lock means preventing opening of the doors including a lock member having a first position maintaining the drive lever in a closed door position and having a second position allowing the lever to move to an open door position, said lock member being pivotally mounted on the vehicle and swingable between said first position and said second position, and means supporting the lock member including a mechanical advantage lever adapted for engagement with off-vehicle stationary cam means and being movingly engageable with the lock member and pivotally moving the lock member from the first position to the second position. 2. The invention according to claim 1, and the means having the drive lever comprising a crank arrangement driven by the drive lever for opening and closing the hopper doors, and said lock member being pivoted between said first position and said second position whereby the lever in the first position stops movement of said crank for opening the doors and in the second position allows opening of the doors. 3. The invention according to claim 1, and said mechanical advantage lever being adapted for pivotal mounting on the vehicle outwardly of the pivotal connection of the lock member with the vehicle and said drive lever being pivotally mounted about a general vertical axis whereby the angular position of the lock member varies in accordance with the distance of the lever from the ground when the lever is in the second position. 4.The invention according to claim 1, and said mechanical advantage lever being pivotally mounted generally in horizontal alignment with the pivotal end of the lock member member and outwardly therefrom, said mechanical advantage lever having an end outwardly of its pivotal connection engageable with the lock member for movement therealong and having stationary cam engaging means depending therefrom and adapted for sliding engagement with the associated stationary cam means. 5. The invention according to claim 1, and a vehicle mounted stop, said mechanical advantage lever being pivotally mounted at one end of its pivot adapted for engagement with the vehicle mounted stop attendant to limiting pivotal movement of said mechanical advantage lever. 6. The invention according to claim 5, and said mechanical advantage lever having an outer end portion at the other end of its pivot containing its center of gravity whereby the levenabutrnent will engage the stop. 7. The invention according to claim 1, and said drive lever being rotatable generally about a vertical axis and said lock member being pivotal about a horizontal axis, said lock member having a lower outer end tapered surface engageable with said drive lever attendant to the drive lever being moved past the lock member. 8. The invention according to claim 7, and said drive lever having an outer upper end tapered surface for engagingly cooperating with the tapered surface of the lock member attendant to the passing of the drive lever past the lock member. 9. The invention according to claim 1, and vehicle mounted tie means cooperative with the lock member for maintaining the latter stored in the second position.

10. The invention according to claim 1, and

said mechanical advantage means carrying roller means on its upper portion adapted for support engagement with the underside of said lock member.

11. In a railroad hopper car having hopper doors:

door operating mechanism for opening and closing the doors including crank means having a drive lever adapted for engagement with an associated ground mounted cam track means operable upon the drive lever attendant to operating said doors,

said drive lever rotating said crank means about a generally vertical axis,

lock means being in the path of movement of the drive lever preventing rotation of the drive lever from the door closed position,

said crank means and drive lever having opened door and closed door positions,

said lock means including a pivotal lock member being pivoted about a horizontal axis from a first position preventing movement of the drive lever from the closed door position and having a second position to allow the lever to swing to an open door position, and

a mechanical advantage lever pivotally mounted on the car and pivotally supporting the lock member and having rail engaging means adapted for engaging with an associated ground-mounted rail attendant to swinging the lock member from its first position to its second position.

12. The invention according to claim 11, and

a ground-mounted cam rail having sloping surfaces and an elevated horizontal surface adjacent said sloping surface engageable with the mechanical advantage lever attendant to raising the lever from the first t the second position.

13. The invention according to claim 11, and

said mechanical advantage lever rail engaging means being below the point of pivotal connection of the mechanical advantage lever to the car, and

said mechanical advantage lever having a free end provided with lock member engaging means engaging the underside of the lock member attendant to raising the lock member from the first position to the second position in relation to movement of the drive lever.

14. The invention according to claim 13, and

the end of the mechanical advantage lever opposite the free end being provided with an abutment and a carmounted stop engageable with said abutment for maintaining the lock member in the first horizontal position when the mechanical advantage lever is not engaging the rail.

erating the discharge doors of a hopper railroad car between open and closed positions,

a lock device for limiting movement of the crank mechanism from the closed door position, the lock device being pivotally mounted at one end thereof to one end of a car-mounted fixed support,

a multiplier unit pivotally mounted at one end thereof to the other end of the support and the other end of the unit being a free end carrying friction means below the point of pivotal mounting of the unit, the upper part of the other end of the unit slidingly supporting the lock device,

said friction means being adapted for moving engagement with associated ground mounted rail means for raising the lock device out of the path of movement of the crank mechanism attendant to rotating the crank mechanism to the open door position.

17. In a hopper vehicle,

door operating mechanism for moving the doors of the hopper vehicle from closed to open positions,

lock means adapted for pivotal mounting on the vehicle in the path of movement of the door operating mechanism to prevent accidental movement thereof and said lock means having a free end, and

mechanical advantage lock raising means adapted for pivotal mounting on the car between the pivotal connection of the lock bar with the car and the door operating mechanism and adapted for engagement with a ground-mounted rail for raising the lock means and having lock engaging and raising means being releasably engageable with the lock means attendant to elevating the free end of said lock means out of the path of movement of the door operating means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,647,876 11/1927 McCrary 214-63 6/1970 Aquino 2;l4-63X ROBERT G. SHERIDAN, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 

